Wednesday, March 19, 2008

“It’s a simple case to me,” Heller said, “It is wrong for the government to tell me that it is OK for me to have a gun during my work hours, but illegal for me to have a gun when the only thing I want to protect is me.”At that point, a reporter interjected: “the Mayor (DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty) says the handgun ban and his initiatives have significantly lowered violent crime in the District. How do you answer that, Mr. Heller?”The initial answer certainly wasn’t expected – Dick Heller laughed. Ruefully.Pointing at the Mayor who was making his way across the plaza, surrounded by at least six DC police officers, Heller said, “the Mayor doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”“He doesn’t walk on the street like an average citizen. Look at him; he travels with an army of police officers as bodyguards – to keep him safe. But he says that I don’t have the right to be a force of one to protect myself. Does he look like he thinks the streets are safe?”There was no follow-up question.

I don't care who you are, that was just awesome. As Tam might say, SNARK FOR THE WIN!In all seriousness, though, Heller was right on the money -- he nailed that son of a bitch Adrian Fenty right in the ass. If Fenty actually believed what he said, he wouldn't be traveling with a gaggle of armed bodyguards everywhere he goes. It's easy for him to say that, as he lives a completely different life than his subjects. I'd love to know who that reporter was and if Dick Heller's answer to his question will actually make it into his or her story. I'd bet the cost of my plane ticket to Kentucky that it won't. And I'd also bet that no reporter asked Fenty why he feels his subjects shouldn't be allowed the same rights to lethal force that he has. So much for the press being a watchdog over the .gov. Of course, we all know that particular role was made into a sick joke a long time ago.

Unorganized Militia Propaganda Corps

About Me

I am a very opinionated guy, Texan and quite proud of it. I lean toward the right politically but have a few libertarian tendencies that my conservative brothers and sisters might not agree with. I like guns, old country music and a lot of other things.

Essential Reading

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty -- so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator -- and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.-- Cesare Beccaria, in On Crimes And Punishments, later quoted by Thomas Jefferson

Echo

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.-- Alexander Hamilton